APPENDIX 1 

 REPOET ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Sir : I have the honor to submit the following report on the con- 

 dition and operation of the United States National Museum for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1924. 



The maintenance of the National Museum for the year was pro- 

 vided for by a Government appropriation of $452,500 in the execu- 

 tive and independent offices act approved February 13, 1923, with an 

 added item of $79,896 for increase of compensation to care for the 

 bonus of the employees. In 1916 the appropriation to the Museum 

 for all purposes was $426,000. Since 1916 the Museum has increased 

 its exhibition space by the acquisition of the Aircraft Building ; has 

 materially enlarged the scope of its collections in arts and indus- 

 tries and in history, and has received over two and one-fourth mil- 

 lion additional specimens, besides assuming certain definite responsi- 

 bilities for the guarding and upkeep of the Freer Building. As can 

 be readily seen, the difference in the appropriations of 1916 and 1924 

 hardly covers the added cost of maintaining the buildings and 

 guarding the collections, leaving little or nothing to provide expert 

 assistance needed in carrying out the fundamental requirement of 

 the classification of the added collections. The growth of the 

 Museum in all directions continues to be increasingly conditioned by 

 its limited finances. Economies of all kinds are resorted to in mak- 

 ing the appropriation provide first for the safe-keeping of the collec- 

 tions and then for their classification and exhibition. The Museum 

 with its vast collections serves the public not as it would and could 

 but as its limited financial resources permit. 



During the year the scientific staff of the Museum was held intact 

 with very few exceptions, doubtless due to the approaching read- 

 justment under the classification act of 1923, which becomes effective 

 July 1, 1924. As reported last year, tentative allocations of all posi- 

 tions in the Government bureaus under the Smithsonian Institution 

 were submitted to the Personnel Classification Board by the writer 

 as liaison officer of the Institution. The board this year reviewed, 

 revised, and approved, with few exceptions, the allocations of the 

 Museum employees. The few positions still awaiting the board's 

 final approval will, it is expected, be settled within a few days. The 

 results of the classification act are far-reaching. The scientific force 



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